Articles - Assurance

What capabilities does a telco need to create a self-healing network?

The most striking thing about a self-healing network is its wide-ranging use of intelligence.  The diagram shows that a telco will need to develop a range of new intelligence capabilities, alongside new data collection techniques and downstream automations.  In recent research on automation, self-healing was identified as one of the last automations to mature in […]

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What is a self-healing network?

This research started by investigating the definition of self-healing because, although it is part of the Self-X terminologies within the TM Forum’s autonomous network project, it is often used to describe different functionalities within the network.  At interview, there was a mix of enthusiasm for using the phrase “self-healing”, given that it is often interchangeable […]

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NWDAF Enthusiasm in 2022

Based on recent conversations with telcos and vendors, interest in NWDAF appears to have had a small uptick since 2021.   However, it is often just a small part of a bigger RFI/RFP.  The drivers and barriers towards adoption considered to be:  

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The state of the Market for 5G Assurance

The diagram below sets out product development trends seen across assurance. It is a summary of topics discussed at vendor interview when asked about what they were currently creating and selling in 5G assurance – it is a mix of: existing products those on the roadmap discussion of problems which will require future assurance products […]

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Future of NWDAF

The future of NWDAF is not very clear.  The most influential pros and cons to NWDAF are shown here: NWDAF aims to solve a single issue in the deployment of automated, hybrid and 5G networks – the provision of high-performance data/analytics to allow “fast” control loop for automation Market commentators discuss the possibility that its […]

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Developments in 5G Assurance Capabilities

This diagram sets out the uses for 5G assurance data – split by the types of analytics/ML needed (going down the rows) and those requiring the data (going across the columns): The blue boxes show activities which increase in importance in a 5G network: Issue prediction, automated root cause analysis and adaptive thresholds for KPIs […]

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Development of the Market for 5G Assurance

The diagram explores the idea that “pockets” of 5G assurance capabilities will be developed by vendors – assuming that vendor priority will be to expand their capabilities in areas of current expertise. The box colours denote:  Blue = network assurance, Green = service assurance, Purple = enterprise-focussed assurance, Pink = new or niche capabilities, Grey […]

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How can Telcos Offer Edge Assurance to Customers and Partners?

The diagram below shows the main options that a telco might have to deliver assurance products at the edge to its customers and partners – assuming that this is something that a telco with an aggressive strategy in IoT would want (or need) to do. The pink arrows across the top describe groups of capabilities […]

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Assuring the Edge – Considerations for Telcos

This research took a broad approach to the definitions of both “the edge” and “assurance” to enable the investigation of the new assurance that a telco will require as it deploys networks, infrastructure, devices and services to support customers taking a mix of network products, edge compute and IoT services from the telco. It was […]

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Discussing the Future of A3 in Telco Assurance

I sat down with Chris Menier from assurance/AIOps vendor, Vitria, for a 15 minute discussion on the future of assurance. Please find a summary of the discussion and access to the audio, here: https://www.vitria.com/customer-centric-network-assurance-strategies-pdf-audio  

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